Seventy Miles in Hell
The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. Now hundreds of thousands of migrants are risking treacherous terrain, violence, hunger, and disease to travel through the jungle to the United States.
September 2024
In This Issue
Seventy miles in the Darién Gap, the Voynich Manuscript, M. Night Shyamalan, and new fiction by Graham Smith. Plus Xochitl Gonzalez's revolutionary mother, Trump-rally prayers, HBO's Industry, Fanny Stevenson, Danzy Senna, flags of the far right, and more.
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An Intoxicating 500-Year-Old Mystery
The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars—and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists. Now a prominent medievalist is taking a new approach to unlocking its secrets.
How M. Night Shyamalan Came Back From the Dead
The filmmaker weathered some of the wildest hype and harshest backlash that Hollywood has to offer. Then he found a different path.
To Save the World, My Mother Abandoned Me
She cared more about fomenting a socialist revolution than raising her child.
Fiction
Max Miechowski / Redux Beauty
A short story
Dispatches
Illustration by Danielle Del Plato. Source: Melissa Sue Gerrits / Getty. The Most Revealing Moment of a Trump Rally
A close reading of the prayers delivered before the former president speaks
Illustration by Paul Spella American Fury
For years, experts have warned of a wave of political violence in America. We should prepare for things to get worse before they get better.
Illustration by Joe McKendry A Field Guide to the Flags of the Far Right
From Betsy Ross to Trump-Rambo
From "When Two or More Are Gathered Together," Damiani Books, 2024. © Neal Slavin. The DeLorean Owners Association Strikes a Pose
The unexpected delight of group photos
Culture & Critics
Nick Strasburg / HBO How Greed Got Good Again
In HBO’s Industry, Gen Z reveals itself to be just as money-obsessed as the corporate raiders of Wall Street.
Illustration by Rachel Levit Ruiz A Satire of America’s Obsession With Identity
The hero of Danzy Senna’s new novel is trying, and failing, to write the Great American Biracial Novel.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2005.3. Photography by Dwight Primiano. A Marriage That Changed Literary History
Fanny Stevenson forced her husband, Robert Louis Stevenson, to live a bigger life than he had known.
Illustration by Melek Zertal Consider the Boor
In Jo Hamya’s new novel, pity becomes a form of power.
Departments
The Atlantic
Poetry
Victor Decolongon / Getty
